Researches find poop-throwing by chimps is a sign of intelligence

(PhysOrg.com) -- A lot of people who have gone to the zoo have become the targets of feces thrown by apes or monkeys, and left no doubt wondering about the so-called intellectual capacity of a beast that would resort to such foul play. Now however, researchers studying such behavior have come to the conclusion that throwing feces, or any object really, is actually a sign of high ordered behavior. Bill Hopkins of Emory University and his colleagues have been studying the whole process behind throwing and the impact it has on brain development, and have published their results in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

Hopkins and his team have focused their research on chimpanzees, mainly due they say, to the fact that chimps are our closet living relative and that they are the only other species besides humans that regularly throw things with a clear target in mind. He and his team have been watching chimps in action for several years and comparing their actions with scans of their brains to see if there were any correlations between those chimps that threw a lot, and those that didn’t or whether they’re accuracy held any deeper meaning. Surprisingly, they found that chimps that both threw more and were more likely to hit their targets showed heightened development in the motor cortex, and more connections between it and the Broca’s area, which they say is an important part of speech in humans. The better chimp throwers, in other words, had more highly developed left brain hemispheres, which is also, non-coincidently, where speech processing occurs in people.

Such findings led the term to suggest that the ability to throw is, or was, a precursor to speech development in human beings.

After making their discovery regarding the parts of the brain that appear to be involved in better throwing in chimps, the team tested the chimps and found that those that could throw better also appeared to be better communicators within their group, giving credence to their idea that speech and throwing are related. Interestingly, they also found that the better throwing chimps didn’t appear to posses any more physical prowess than other chimps, which the researchers suggest means that throwing didn’t develop as a means of hunting, but as a form of communication within groups, i.e. throwing stuff at someone else became a form of self expression, which is clearly evident to anyone who has ever been targeted by a chimp locked up in a zoo.

More information: The neural and cognitive correlates of aimed throwing in chimpanzees: a magnetic resonance image and behavioural study on a unique form of social tool use, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 12 January 2012 vol. 367 no. 1585 37-47, doi: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0195

AbstractIt has been hypothesized that neurological adaptations associated with evolutionary selection for throwing may have served as a precursor for the emergence of language and speech in early hominins. Although there are reports of individual differences in aimed throwing in wild and captive apes, to date there has not been a single study that has examined the potential neuroanatomical correlates of this very unique tool-use behaviour in non-human primates. In this study, we examined whether differences in the ratio of white (WM) to grey matter (GM) were evident in the homologue to Broca's area as well as the motor-hand area of the precentral gyrus (termed the KNOB) in chimpanzees that reliably throw compared with those that do not. We found that the proportion of WM in Broca's homologue and the KNOB was significantly higher in subjects that reliably throw compared with those that do not. We further found that asymmetries in WM within both brain regions were larger in the hemisphere contralateral to the chimpanzee's preferred throwing hand. We also found that chimpanzees that reliably throw show significantly better communication abilities than chimpanzees that do not. These results suggest that chimpanzees that have learned to throw have developed greater cortical connectivity between primary motor cortex and the Broca's area homologue. It is suggested that during hominin evolution, after the split between the lines leading to chimpanzees and humans, there was intense selection on increased motor skills associated with throwing and that this potentially formed the foundation for left hemisphere specialization associated with language and speech found in modern humans.

Related Stories

Researchers have found what they say is some of the first unambiguous evidence that an animal other than humans can make spontaneous plans for future events. The report in the March 9th issue of Current Bi ...

Playful behavior is widespread in mammals, and has important developmental consequences. A recent study of young chimpanzees shows that these animals play and develop much the same way as human children. The ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study conducted by researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, with results published in PLoS ONE, shows that some apes are capable of using insightful reasoning to achiev ...

The new motion picture "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" has been a box office blockbuster since it opened last month. One moviegoer who may have a more keen interest than most in the way chimpanzee intelligence was portrayed ...

Recommended for you

While studying a ground-nesting bird population near El Reno, Okla., a University of Oklahoma-led research team found that stress during a severe weather outbreak of May 31, 2013, had manifested itself into malformations ...

(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers with Harvard University has uncovered one of the secrets behind pigeons' impressive flight abilities. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

The International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM), the veterinary division of International Cat Care, has convened an expert panel of veterinary clinicians and academics to produce practical guidance to ...

(Phys.org)—A trio of researchers has found that one species of flower is able to pick and choose when it comes to accepting pollen from a variety of pollinators. In their paper published in Proceedings of ...

I believe (though I've never seen an actual statistic, have heard it many times though) that the prison population is, on average, more intelligent than the citizenry. I'm sure most people are aware of "chemical warfare" within our penitentiaries.

Maybe throwing one's feces is a sign of extreme outrage at one's conditions, which maybe correlated with higher intelligence.

Obviously these monkeys aren't very happy about being confined to small areas, practically prisoners, stared at regularly by strange creatures which are constantly point at or mocking them. Seems blatantly obvious that these monkeys are emotionally upset and dissatisfied with their lives in these places.

Sure, we on the other side know that many of these species are being hunted to extinction, but they're practically dead in zoo's as well, nothing that represents or lets them exercise their true nature.

Well, I've said it before, I'll say it again, there is no limit to the value of compassion aside from the one we decide on.

Can you imagine how foolish we'll look to the humans 100 or 500 years in the future, in regards to how we once chose to define things like intelligence, sentience and self-awareness in the world around us ?

We will learn a great deal from nature in the future, you can bank on it.

Abstract says: "We further found that asymmetries in WM within both brain regions were larger in the hemisphere contralateral to the chimpanzee's preferred throwing hand". Is this what is foundin humans as well?

It's hard to believe that fling your own excrement at anyone to be a sign of intelligence. Scientist can be crazy sometimes. If that's smart, than Black Friday shoppers spraying people with pepper spray must be genius: http://lawblog.le...ry-jail/

"It is suggested that during hominin evolution, after the split between the lines leading to chimpanzees and humans, there was intense selection on increased motor skills associated with throwing and that this potentially formed the foundation for left hemisphere specialization associated with language and speech found in modern humans."It may, however, have been millions of years after the split, possibly at about 2.5MYa, when our lineage's brain size first started to increase (Homo habilis - "handy man"), probably as we started to spend more time on savannah. Other skills than throwing would also have been developing at that time, however (eg, tool-making).

I'm not sure, if the poop throwing is the sign of the high intelligence. For example, the camels and goat are using to spit at the unsympathetic objects. It's rather the aggressiveness, than the manifestation of individualistic personality.

The higher is the fitness of animals, the more selfconfident, if not aggressive the animals are, which could explain the positive correlation of poop throwing with the size of their brains. They're simply behave as an alpha males, so they've everything bigger.

But as we know from real life, the most aggressive males aren't always these most smarter ones.

No. Those who claim that they are self reliant are of low intelligence.

I have never met anyone who has claimed to be self reliant who doesn't wear shoes made by someone else, using glue invented by someone else, plastics extruded by someone else, leather grown by an animal and not himself, and who doesn't walk on pavement that was poured by someone else, using cement mixed by someone else, containing a binder that wasn't dehydrated by someone else, binder that was dehydrated in a machine built by someone else, using steel that was produced by someone else, from iron ore that was mined by someone else, transported to a smelter by someone else, poured by someone else, cooled by someone else, formed into billets by someone else, and formed by someone else.

Typically those who claim self reliant live in a house built by someone else, constructed from wood that was harvested by someone else, wood made from trees that Cont.

grew by themselves without the aid of the home owner, hauled and cut into standard sizes by someone else, and erected on a foundation that was formed and poured by others, in a hole that was dug by someone else, using machinery that was produced by someone else, that is powered by gasoline that was produced by someone else and transported to a filling station by someone else.

Funny isn't it that those who revere "self reliance" actually do virtually nothing for themselves.

This is very good point, congrats...;-) It explains the rudimentary aspects of this behaviour very clearly, nearly 1:1. Thanks to it we can exactly imagine, what the chimpanzee are feeling, when they're throwing poops through bars. And vice-versa, thanks to it we now know, why the prisoners are doing this silly ritual.

BTW The mass downvoting applied some individuals here is of the same origin. It's act of the aggressive frustration from the primitive apes inside of us.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world Gods invisible qualitieshis eternal power and divine naturehave been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

All I can say is, the emperor has no clothes.

Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed but rather evolved.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Yawn. Scratch. Snort. Fart. Belch. I take it you're a religionist aren't you? How can we know something that is not there? We know what we know. And so far what we know is, all the various believers in all the various gods together will end this species through their selfish bigotry and desire to supplant all the others.

Give up your addictive fantasies. Live with things as they ARE. There's NO GOD to save you from each other. I do hope there is a Power to save the world from all of you.

"18 I also said to myself, "As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?" ecc3

-This all doesn't mean much when taken out of context. But what 'solomon' is saying in the whole chapter is that humans are indeed like the animals they hunt and herd. They operate by the same basic rules, which includes reproduction.

The People who wrote your book knew that humans need Management just like the animals which both threaten them and feed them. And Management includes a proper Time for all activities as listed in the previous verses.

" 1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate..."

-And last but certainly not least:

"a Time for war and a Time for peace."

-The Salvation of the species depends on being able to make these things happen at the proper Time. Through the ages your religions have all been instrumental in this. But their Utility is past. They must END now.

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript.
In order to enable it, please see these instructions.